Forest Dept Prays For Rain To Control Blazing Forest Fires In Odisha

Bhubaneswar: The India Meteorological Department’s (IMD) forecast for rain from Tuesday has come as a relief for the Odisha Forest Department struggling to douse forest fires triggered by long dry spell.

“We are praying for rain as things can get worse from here on. It has been a long dry spell with no rain since October,” said principal chief conservator of forests (PCCF) Debidutta Biswal.

Fires have been reported from forests in Champua division of Keonjhar, Similipal Tiger Reserve in Mayurbhanj, Chandaka in Khurda, Mohana in Gajapati, Dhenkanal, Ghumsar in Ganjam and Soro in Balasore. As many as 1,380 fire points were detected on Monday. Among them, 185 were major fires with Koraput and Baripada remaining the concern areas, official sources said.

A total of 295 fire points were reported from Koraput circle, 256 in Baripada circle, 203 in Berhampur circle, 185 in Bhawanipatna circle, 105 in Sambalpur circle, 97 in Angul circle and 53 in Bhubaneswar circle, the sources added quoting the data released by the Forest Survey of India (FSI).

“As many as 16,000 Vana Surakhya Samitis and 280 special squads have been engaged to deal with forest inferno in the state. The members of women self-help groups have been roped in to create awareness and check the fires which are mostly man-made,” the PCCF added.

Notably, 578 incidents of fire were reported in Odisha’s forests over the week between February 1 and February 8, the highest in the country, according to FSI’s fire alerts system based on Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP).